NEW DELHI: The Uddhav Thackeray faction of the Shiv Sena has submitted its response to the Election Commission, after the rival Eknath Shinde group approached the poll panel with claim over the party’s ‘bow and arrow’ symbol.
“Yesterday we filed our preliminary reply and today also we filed a reply. We’ve submitted affidavits of our national executives and 2.5 lakh+ affidavits will be submitted within due course,” said S Jain, counsel for the Uddhav Thackeray faction.
On Friday, the Shinde faction had submitted a memorandum seeking it be allocated the symbol for the upcoming Andheri assembly bypoll.
Following this, the Commission had sought a response from the Thackeray faction, giving a timeline of 2pm on Saturday.
Shinde had raised a banner of revolt against Uddhav Thackeray for entering into an “unnatural alliance” with the Congress and NCP. Over 40 of the Shiv Sena’s 55 MLAs had supported Shinde, forcing the resignation of Thackeray from the post of Maharashtra chief minister.
Twelve of the 18 Lok Sabha members of the Shiv Sena also came out in support of Shinde, who later claimed to be the leader of the original Shiv Sena.
The groups are now engaged in a bitter power struggle over the control of the Shiv Sena- both claiming as being the ‘original’ and ideological heirs of party founder Balasaheb Thackeray.
The Thackeray group has fielded Rutuja Latke, the widow of MLA Ramesh Latke, for the November 3 Andheri assembly bypoll.
The BJP, an ally of the Shinde faction, has given ticket to field Murji Patel, a corporator in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, for the bypoll necessitated due to the death of Ramesh Latke.
The Andheri East bypoll is the first after Shinde and the BJP unseated the MVA government in June, and is considered by political analysts as a precursor to settling of claims by Shinde and Thackeray to be the “real Shiv Sena”.
“Yesterday we filed our preliminary reply and today also we filed a reply. We’ve submitted affidavits of our national executives and 2.5 lakh+ affidavits will be submitted within due course,” said S Jain, counsel for the Uddhav Thackeray faction.
On Friday, the Shinde faction had submitted a memorandum seeking it be allocated the symbol for the upcoming Andheri assembly bypoll.
Following this, the Commission had sought a response from the Thackeray faction, giving a timeline of 2pm on Saturday.
Shinde had raised a banner of revolt against Uddhav Thackeray for entering into an “unnatural alliance” with the Congress and NCP. Over 40 of the Shiv Sena’s 55 MLAs had supported Shinde, forcing the resignation of Thackeray from the post of Maharashtra chief minister.
Twelve of the 18 Lok Sabha members of the Shiv Sena also came out in support of Shinde, who later claimed to be the leader of the original Shiv Sena.
The groups are now engaged in a bitter power struggle over the control of the Shiv Sena- both claiming as being the ‘original’ and ideological heirs of party founder Balasaheb Thackeray.
The Thackeray group has fielded Rutuja Latke, the widow of MLA Ramesh Latke, for the November 3 Andheri assembly bypoll.
The BJP, an ally of the Shinde faction, has given ticket to field Murji Patel, a corporator in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, for the bypoll necessitated due to the death of Ramesh Latke.
The Andheri East bypoll is the first after Shinde and the BJP unseated the MVA government in June, and is considered by political analysts as a precursor to settling of claims by Shinde and Thackeray to be the “real Shiv Sena”.